I've just started reading A Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu as part of the big summer read over at Benjamin McEvoy's book club, the Hardcore Literature Book Club. I have two translations and the first chapter of the Manga edition and did a quick translation comparison of a favourite passage from chapter 1.
Hardcore Literature Book Club - / hardcoreliterature
►Tyler Translation◄
At dusk one blustery and suddenly chilly autumn day, His Majesty, assailed more than ever by memories, dispatched the gentlewoman dubbed Yugei no Myōbu to his love's home, then, after she had left under a beautiful evening moon, he lapsed again into reverie. He felt her there beside him, just as she had always been on evenings like this when he had called for music, and when her touch on her instrument, or her least word to him, had been so much her own; except that he would have preferred even to this vivid dream her simple reality in the dark.
►Washburn Translation◄
The winds of autumn were stirring, the dusk air suddenly began to chill the skin, and the Emperor, lost in his memories, grew increasingly melancholy. One evening he sent a lady-in-waiting, Yugei no Myōbu, the daughter of an archer in the Palace Guard, to the house where the young Prince was staying. The moon that night was exquisite, and, having sent the woman on her way, His Majesty was soon lost in a reverie. He had always arranged for some form of entertainment with music and poetry on just such spectacular evenings as this. He conjured phantom images of playing the koto together with his lost love and recalled the special feeling and artistry of her performance. He remembered her way of speaking, so seemingly natural and unforced, and her looks and bearing, so superior to the others. These images clung to him, bringing to mind the old verse that claimed reality in the darkness was no better than dreams.4 How wrong that poet was, he thought. There is no substitute for her real presence here in the dark.
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Tale of Genji, Tyler Translation (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) - geni.us/EdOw
Tale of Genji, Dennis Washburn Translation - geni.us/5511k
Tale of Genji, Manga, Volume 1. - geni.us/BSvy
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21 май 2024